A lot of the pre-premiere buzz on Fox's
"The Mindy Project" centered around what a perfect companion show it is for
"New Girl."

They're both about smart, quirky, young women unlucky in love and the circle of friends they spend most of their time with. But "Mindy" is clearly its own show, as equally focused on the professional life as it is the personal life of Mindy Lahiri (played by "The Office" vet and "Mindy Project" creator
Mindy Kaling).

"Mindy Project" is less like a 21st Century spin on
"Friends" and more like
"The Mary Tyler Moore Show" crossed with a '90s rom-com. And Kaling is truly unlike any other leading lady on TV. It's not just her ethnicity that makes her stand out (because, yes, there still aren't a lot of Indian Americans on TV), it's the way she drops razor-sharp pop-culture-savvy one-liners with such ease and flair. She's not just the funniest person in the room, she's the smartest too, which makes her unfortunate relationship decisions all the more awesomely awkward to witness.

Yes, "The Mindy Project" says, you can be intelligent and witty and charming and really, really bad at dating. It happens.

But will Kaling's brainy idiosyncrasies endear her to TV fans? Are her boy-crazy dilemmas relatable or degrading?

We're
already hooked, and can't wait to see what's next for Kaling and talented co-stars
Chris Messina,
Ed Weeks and -- one of our
One to Watch picks --
Anna Camp.